While the team initially struggled after moving to Washington, the Nationals have experienced considerable success in recent years, winning division titles in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017, although they have yet to advance out of the first round in the playoffs.[6] Two of the team's first overall picks in the MLB Draft, Stephen Strasburg in 2009 and Bryce Harper in 2010, attracted new levels of attention to the team. At the time of his selection, Strasburg was called the "most-hyped pick in draft history," and Harper later became the youngest position player to be selected to the MLB All-Star Game.[7][8] Including their time in Montreal, the Nationals are one of two franchises, and the only one in the National League, never to have won a league pennant and played in a World Series, along with the Seattle Mariners of the American League.[9][10]

Multiple short-lived baseball franchises, including two named the Nationals, played in Washington with the National Association in the 1870s.[note 1] The first Washington Nationals team in a major league played in the American Association in 1884.[15] Another Washington Nationals team also played in the Union Association during its only season in 1884.[16] The first Washington Nationals of the National League played from 1886 to 1889.[17]

The majority-share owner was by Charles Bronfman, a major shareholder in Seagram. Named after the Expo 67World's Fair, the Expos' initial home was Jarry Park. Managed by Gene Mauch, the team lost 110 games in their first season, coincidentally matching the Padres inaugural win-loss record, and continued to struggle during their first decade with sub-.500 seasons.

The team spent most of the 1980s in the middle of the NL East pack, finishing in third or fourth place in eight out of nine seasons from 1982 to 1990. Buck Rodgers was hired as manager before the 1985 season and guided the Expos to a .500 or better record five times in six years, with the highlight coming in 1987, when they won 91 games. They finished third, but were just four games behind the division-winning Cardinals.

Bronfman sold the team to a consortium of owners in 1991, with Claude Brochu as the managing general partner.[22][23]
Rodgers, at that time second only to Gene Mauch in number of Expos games managed, was replaced partway through the 1991 season. In May 1992, Felipe Alou, a member of the Expos organization since 1976, was promoted to manager, becoming the first Dominican-born manager in MLB history.[22] Alou would become the leader in Expos games managed, while guiding the team to winning records, including 1994, when the Expos, led by a talented group of players including Larry Walker, Moisés Alou, Marquis Grissom and Pedro Martínez, had the best record in the major leagues until the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike forced the cancellation of the remainder of the season. After the disappointment of 1994, Expos management began shedding its key players, and the team's fan support dwindled.

Brochu sold control of the team to Jeffrey Loria in 1999,[24][25]
but Loria failed to close on a plan to build a new downtown ballpark, and did not reach an agreement on television and English radio broadcast contracts for the 2000 season, reducing the team's media coverage.

After the 2001 season, MLB considered revoking the team's franchise, along with either the Minnesota Twins or the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.[26][27] In November 2001, Major League Baseball's owners voted 28–2 to contract the league by two teams — according to various sources, the Expos and the Minnesota Twins, both of which reportedly voted against contraction.[28]
Subsequently, the Boston Red Sox were sold to a partnership led by John W. Henry, owner of the Florida Marlins.[28][29]
In order to clear the way for Henry's group to assume ownership of the Red Sox, Henry sold the Marlins to Loria, and MLB purchased the Expos from Loria.[28]
However, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, operator of the Metrodome, won an injunction requiring the Twins to play there in 2002.[28] Because MLB was unable to revoke the Twins franchise, it was compelled to keep both the Twins and Expos as part of the regular season schedule. In the collective bargaining agreement signed with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) in August 2002, contraction was prohibited until the end of the contract in 2006.[30] By that time, the Expos had become the Washington Nationals and the Twins had made sufficient progress towards the eventual building of a new baseball-specific stadium that contraction was no longer on the agenda.

On September 29, 2004, MLB announced that the Expos would move to Washington, D.C. in 2005.[31][32]

The Expos played their final game on October 3 at Shea Stadium in New York, losing by a score of 8–1 against the New York Mets, the same opponent that the Expos first faced at its start, 35 years earlier. On November 15, a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria was struck down by arbitrators, bringing to an end all legal actions that would impede a move. The owners of the other MLB teams approved the move to Washington, D.C. in a 28–1 vote on December 3 (Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole dissenting vote).

Numerous professional baseball teams have called Washington, D.C. home. The Washington Senators, a founding member of the American League (AL), played in the nation's capital from 1901 to 1960 before moving to Minnesota and becoming the Twins. The original Washington American League Base Ball Club was founded by three local businessmen: Edward J. Walsh, Benjamin Minor, and Harry Rapley. Clark Griffith was hired as manager in 1912 and became a part owner, accumulating majority shares in later years. The stadium, originally known as National Park and then American League Park, later became known as Griffith Stadium. With notable stars including Walter Johnson and Joe Cronin, the Senators won the 1924 World Series and pennants in 1925 and 1933. The franchise became more successful after moving to Minnesota for the 1961 season to be renamed the Minnesota Twins. A second Washington Senators team (1961–1971) had a winning record only once in its 11 years, although it featured slugger Frank Howard, who was inducted into the Ring of Fame at the new Nationals Park in 2016. This team was notable also because Ted Williams was manager in 1971. The expansion Senators moved to Arlington, Texas for the 1972 season and changed its name to the Texas Rangers. The city of Washington spent the next 33 years without a baseball team.

Although there was some sentiment to revive the name Senators when the Montreal Expos franchise moved to Washington in 2005, legal and political considerations factored into the choice of Nationals, a revival of the first American League franchise's official name used from 1901 to 1956.[33] Politicians and others in the District of Columbia objected to the name Senators because the District of Columbia does not have voting representation in Congress.[34] In addition, the Rangers still owned the rights to the Senators name,[35] although the Nationals were able to acquire the rights to the curly "W" logo from the Rangers.[citation needed] This logo looked a lot like Walgreens logo, but the drugstore chain never sued because, even though people have trouble telling the logos apart, it is believed the chain does not see this as a problem.[36]

Washington, D.C., mayor Anthony A. Williams supported the name "Washington Grays", in honor of the Negro-league team the Homestead Grays (1929–1950), which had been based in Pittsburgh, but played many of their home games in Washington. In the end, the team owners chose the name "Washington Nationals".[37]

When Ted Lerner took over the club in mid-2006, he hired Stan Kasten as team president. Kasten was widely known as the architect of the Atlanta Braves before and during their run of 14 division titles. Kasten was also the general manager or president of many other Atlanta-area sports teams, including the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers. "The Plan", as it became known, was a long-range rebuilding and restructuring of the team from the ground up. This plan included investing in the farm system and the draft, and having a suitable team to go along with their new stadium.

In the front office, the Nationals hired the well-respected former Arizona scouting director Mike Rizzo to be the vice president of baseball operations, second in charge under then-general manager Jim Bowden.[38]

Thanks to back-to-back No. 1 picks of Stephen Strasburg (in 2009) and Bryce Harper (in 2010), and other strong moves to their farm system, the Nationals became a contending team by 2012, winning division titles in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017, but have lost in NLDS each time.[39] In 2018, the All-Star Game was played at Nationals Park.

In 2016, the Nationals acquired Mets infielder Daniel Murphy, who has made the All Star Game in each of his two years as a National.[40]

On July 31, 2018, the Nationals set a scoring record with a 25-4 win over the Mets.

The Montreal Expos-Washington Nationals franchise is the only National League franchise and one of only two MLB franchises – with the American League′s Seattle Mariners – which has never reached the World Series. Although the Expos won one postseason series — the 1981 National League Division Series – during their 36 seasons in Montreal (1969–2004), the Nationals have never won a postseason series since arriving in Washington in 2005 despite making four playoff appearances (all of which have resulted in loss in the NLDS).

During the franchise's period in Montreal, the Montreal Expos retired three numbers in honor of four players, plus Jackie Robinson's number 42 which was retired throughout all Major League Baseball in 1997.[43]
Following the move to Washington, D.C., the numbers (except 42) were returned to circulation and remain in use as of 2016[update], although the "Team History" section of the Nationals' website continues to refer to the numbers as "retired."[43] After the Expos' departure from Montreal, the National Hockey League′s Montreal Canadiens hung a banner in Bell Centre honoring the Expos' retired numbers.

On August 10, 2010, the Nationals unveiled a "Ring of Honor"[note 3] at Nationals Park to honor National Baseball Hall of Fame members who had played "significant years" for the Washington Nationals, original Washington Senators (1901–1960), expansion Washington Senators (1961–1971), Homestead Grays, or Montreal Expos.[44][45] In late August 2016, the team dropped the criterion that an inductee be a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, also opening membership to "anyone who has made a significant contribution to the game of baseball in Washington, D.C.";[45] the first inductee under the revised criteria was Frank Howard.[45]

The Nationals′ attempt to honor the Montreal-Washington franchise′s entire history in the Ring of Honor, as well as by tracking Montreal-Washington franchise records, is not without controversy; it has been criticized as "an embodiment of the team’s desire to find history before it can make much."[46] Although Nationals fans generally take little interest in the franchise′s Montreal years, some do appreciate acknowledging that the franchise has a history that predates its arrival in Washington, and former Expo Tim Raines received a warm round of applause from fans at Nationals Park at his induction ceremony on August 28, 2017, even though he had never even visited Washington, D.C., before, let alone played baseball there.[46][47] Some Montreal Expos fans express appreciation that the Nationals are honoring the Expos, and Expos players inducted into the Ring of Honor have expressed gratitude that the Nationals chose to include them, especially with no MLB team in Montreal to honor their careers.[47][48][49] However, few Nationals fans have taken an interest in franchise records, preferring to compare Nationals records with those of previous Washington MLB teams instead,[47] and a segment of Nationals fans actively opposes the inclusion of Expos history into that of the Nationals, taking the view that the Montreal years are irrelevant to Washington and that the team made a complete break with its past and started anew when it arrived in Washington, inheriting the history of the two Washington Senators teams rather than that of the Expos.[47] Similarly, Montreal Expos fans have taken little or no interest in the achievements of Nationals players, and some Expos fans strongly oppose the inclusion of former Expos in the Ring, taking the position that to do so is to co-opt the history of the Expos, which they say belongs solely in Montreal.[47]

Observers also have noted that the admission of the first Nationals player to the Ring of Honor, Iván "Pudge" Rodríguez,[46] although he was well-liked as a National, highlights another awkward aspect of the Ring of Honor's acceptance criteria, because Rodriguez's inclusion arose out of his admission to the National Baseball Hall of Fame based on his exploits for other teams, not out of anything he did during a 155-game, two-season stint with the Nationals at the end of his career in years in which the Nationals posted mediocre records. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo responded that his inclusion had merit even based on his time with the Nationals, when he "taught us how to be a professional franchise."[46][50]

In a ceremony held at Nationals Park between games of a doubleheader on the evening of September 8, 2018, the Nationals inducted former outfielder Jayson Werth, who played for the Nationals from 2011 through 2017, into the Ring of Honor.[51][52] He became the first "true" National[46] – the first person based specifically on his career as a National – inducted into the Ring of Honor.[46]

The Nationals hold spring training in Florida, where they play their annual slate of Grapefruit League games. From 2005 through 2016, they held spring training at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida, a facility that they inherited from the Expos. In 2017, the Nationals moved their spring training operations to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, a new facility they share with the Houston Astros in West Palm Beach, Florida; they played their first Grapefruit League game there on February 28, 2017. On February 16, 2018, it was renamed FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches after the Nationals and Astros signed a 12-year deal for the naming rights to the stadium that day with FITTEAM, an event brand partnership and organic products firm located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.[59]

The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation is the team's charity which is "committed to community partnerships that improve the lives of children and families across the Washington Capital Region. The foundation opened a youth baseball academy in partnership with the D.C. government,[61] and a pediatric diabetes care center at Children's National Medical Center in partnership with the Center. The foundation also provides grants to local organizations.[62]

On August 1, 2011, the foundation, in partnership with several local organizations, formally opened Miracle Field in Germantown, Maryland as part of an effort to encourage athletic activity in children with "mental and/or physical challenges."[63] According to Steven Miller of MLB.com, what sets Miracle Field apart in terms of safety is its unique design, as it "is made entirely of a cushioned synthetic turf that is five-eighths of an inch thick-- providing a safe surface for children in wheelchairs or with other handicaps." [64]

WFED (1500 AM) had been the flagship station since the 2006 season until a multi-year agreement was reached between the Nationals and WJFK before the 2011 season. WFED remains on the network as an affiliate; its 50 kilowatt clear-channel signal allows the Nationals' home-team call to be heard up and down the East Coast.[65][66]

WWZZ (104.1 FM), which carried games in the 2005 season, was the team's first flagship radio station.[67]

Previously, WDCA (channel 20) carried 76 games in the 2005 season while the newly founded MASN was still negotiating cable carriage.[70] From 2009 through 2017, MASN syndicated a package of 20 games for simulcast on an over-the-air television station in Washington. Broadcast partners under this arrangement were WDCW (channel 50) from 2009 through 2012 and CBS affiliate WUSA (channel 9) from 2013 through 2017.[71][72] MASN did not continue the syndication deal for the 2018 season.[73]

In the midst of a season in which they finished with the worst record in Major League Baseball, the Nationals′ television ratings were among the worst in the National League in July 2008[74][75] but increased during the 2010 and 2011 seasons.[76][77] Since 2012, when they began to achieve consistent success on the field, their television viewership has grown continually and dramatically. By 2016, the Nationals′ prime-time television ratings were 15th highest among the 29 U.S. MLB teams, and they rose to 12th in 2017.[78] Ratings declined to 18th among the 29 U.S. teams for the 2018 season.[79]

^ They were: the Washington Olympics for 41 games in 1871-1872,[11] the Washington Nationals for 11 games in 1872,[12] the Washington Blue Legs for 39 games in 1873,[13] and a different Washington Nationals franchise for 28 games in 1875.[14]

^ abDuring 2011, Riggleman and McLaren combined with Davey Johnson for an 80-81 (.497), third-place finish. Riggleman′s record in 2011 was 38–37 (.507), McLaren′s was 2–1 (.667), and Johnson′s was 40–43 (.482).

^Holmes, Dan (November 23, 2004). "Nationals hold true to color code". Nationals.com. MLB Advanced Media. Retrieved February 16, 2019. Each incarnation of the Senators, dating back to 1901, shares a common bond: the red, white and blue. Each team has featured the patriotic theme of colors on their uniforms.Cite uses deprecated parameter |deadurl= (help)

^"Name Game"(PDF). 2018 Washington Nationals Media Guide. MLB Advanced Media. March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018. At a ceremony held Nov. 22, 2004 in the historic Main Hall at Union Station, (then) team president Tony Tavares announced the new Washington MLB franchise would be named the Washington Nationals and the color scheme would consist of red, white and blue.

^"MLB and Nationals unveil the official logo of 2018 All-Star Game". MLB.com (Press release). MLB Advanced Media. July 26, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2019. The official logo of the 2018 All-Star Game is as patriotic as its iconic setting. The focal point of the mark is the pristine white United States Capitol dome, which is crowned with the bronze Statue of Freedom. A U.S. flag proudly waves behind it, while the logo is surrounded by a ring of stars. The two stars on the red ring represent the competing leagues, and the six stars on the navy field symbolize their divisions. The ribbon proudly states the location and year of the Midsummer Classic, and to punctuate the mark, the MLB batter is in the colors of scarlet and navy honoring the host franchise.

^"Bringing American Democracy to America's Capital". DCVote.org. May 1, 2005. Retrieved June 16, 2018. The link between baseball and the DC voting rights movement is a natural one. The decision to name the new Washington-area major league team the Nationals instead of the Senators (the name of D.C.'s former baseball team) stems directly from the District's more than 200-year history of being denied voting rights in Congress. (Re-naming the team The Senators would have been something akin to a sick joke, given the District's disenfranchisement.)